Country club buy-in fees in Palm Beach County, Florida, have soared in recent years, with St. Andrews in Boca Raton leading the pack at $500,000. That’s what it costs just to buy there. St. Andrews and other country clubs have significantly raised their one-time, buy-in fees since COVID struck the region in 2020.
The super-rich, able to work remotely, migrated to South Florida, and the country clubs began to compete with each other to improve their facilities, spending tens of millions of dollars on new courses and upgrades to existing ones.
“The demand for homes associated with golf memberships has far outpaced supply,” said Michael Ledwitz, a Realtor who specializes in country club sales. “The buy-in fees pay for all these improvements. It is amazing what they (the country clubs) have been able to do. The new buyers are more than willing to pay those high buy-in fees.”…